Mortara on pole as identical time rule prompts Vergne fury

Edoardo Mortara earned his maiden Formula E pole position after defeating Alexander Sims in qualifying for the first race of the Berlin E-Prix double-header.

The Venturi driver was slower than Mahindra’s Sims, who is so far point-less in 2022, in the first two sectors but pulled the time back in sector three to take pole on a 1m06.093s.

He admitted he was “quite surprised” to take the three bonus points, having run wide at Turn 1.

Incredibly, Sims set an identical time to Jean-Eric Vergne in their semi-final duel, and the Mahindra driver was given the win as he completed his lap first – as per Article 35.2 (d) of the sporting regulations: “Should two or more drivers have identical times, priority will be given to the one who set it first.”

Vergne, who is second in the championship, was unimpressed by the rule, saying he “very pissed off, this is the stupidest rule I’ve ever seen in my life,” after qualifying.

“I’m faster than him in the qualifying [stage] before, and the guy goes in front of me because he was slower than me on the run before, I think they need to change the rule.

“But anyway, it’s too late now, probably never going to happen again to be on the same thousandth, but it’s stupid.”

Vergne’s DS Techeetah team-mate Antonio Felix da Costa was also eliminated in the semi-final as he lost out to Mortara.

Porsche’s Andre Lotterer was the fastest of the quarter-final losers so he’ll line-up in fifth place ahead of his team-mate Pascal Wehrlein.

Sergio Sette Camara delivered a stunning group stage lap to deliver his and Dragon Penske’s maiden duel appearance. He’ll start seventh ahead of the championship-leading Mercedes EQ of Stoffel Vandoorne.

Nissan e.dams’ Sebastien Buemi was also on course to qualify for the duels as he set the fourth-quickest time in the second group.

But while he avoided a penalty for allegedly blocking Robin Frijns, Buemi was stripped of his fastest time because he didn’t spend the minimum amount of time in the pitlane during the first phase of qualifying.

He’s now set to start 10th behind Mitch Evans, who has won two of the last three races for Jaguar. Defending champion Nyck de Vries will start from 12th.

Qualifying Results